Photo: Akshay Chauhan | Unsplash
Australian phone company Telstra now provides free local and national calls as well as calls to mobiles. More than 11 million phone calls have been made from its payphones in the past year, including 230,000 calls to emergency services. According to Salvation Army Major Brendan Nottle, the move will be a game changer for many vulnerable Australians who don't have access to a mobile phone and will "break down that sense of social poverty, social isolation to connect with a friend or to connect with a service." Though the scheme will cost the company around $5 million (Australian) a year, Telstra CEO Andy Penn says "it's not a big deal for Telstra," given the crucial role played by the phones during emergency situations like bush fires, the company discovered.
|
|
More:
